


Tornado Twin Talks

by swallowthewhale



Series: Lemon Dreams [26]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 16:45:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12868761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: Twenty years after Barry and Iris' wedding, Cisco has a nagging feeling that he's forgotten something. Cue the 'time travel talk' with Dawn and DJ.A sort of sequel to "Uncle"





	Tornado Twin Talks

Cisco has been sitting with his chin in his hands, staring off into space, for the past ten minutes. Caitlin frowns. It’s probably a new record for him. Cisco is notoriously unable to sit still for long periods of time.

She snaps her fingers in front of his face. “Cisco.”

He jumps. “Wait, what-”

Caitlin props her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong?”

Cisco’s face takes on a distinctly guilty look. “Nothing?”

“Mhmm,” Caitlin says, perching on the desk next to his computer. “Spill.”

Cisco sighs. “It’s Barry and Iris’ twentieth anniversary tonight.”

Caitlin raises an eyebrow. “I know. The twins are staying with us tonight. You didn’t forget, did you?”

He shakes his head, a frown pulling at his mouth. “I just have this weird feeling.”

Caitlin’s eyebrows inch up a bit further. “A ‘the world’s about to end’ feeling?”

“Nope,” Cisco says, popping the p. “More like a ‘someone’s about to do something stupid’ feeling combined with ‘I feel like I should be remembering something…’” he trails off, staring at nothing again.

Caitlin sighs. “Cisco?”

“Oh my God,” Cisco says hoarsely. “I just remembered.” He stands up suddenly and drops his hands on Caitlin’s shoulders. “Don’t be mad.”

Caitlin thumps her forehead against his. “What did I say about leading with that?”

“That you’re probably going to be mad anyway,” Cisco says promptly. “I saw Dawnie at Barry and Iris’ wedding.”

Caitlin’s eyes go as wide as saucers. She puts a hand against his forehead. “Do you have a fever?”

Cisco brushes her hand off and paces away. “I’m serious. I’d totally forgotten about it.” He spins around to point at her. “The first attempt, obviously, since we weren’t there for the real one.”

Caitlin rolls her eyes. Missing the important part of Barry and Iris’ wedding has been a sore spot for years all around. Joe especially gets a bit miffed at the mention of Iris’ vows, and Cisco will never, ever, let it go. “So,” she says slowly. “You saw Dawn Allen, four years before she was born, at her parents’ wedding? And you didn’t say anything?”

Cisco slumps back into his chair. “That about sums it up. The twins were asking me all sorts of questions about the wedding earlier. I should have put it together faster, but I think today is the day Dawnie’s going back.”

Caitlin reaches for his hand and pats it absently, her too now staring off into the distance. “What is it with Allens and time travel?”

Cisco laughs. “That’s what I said!”

“What should we do?” Caitlin asks, brow furrowed. “Stop her?”

“Nah,” Cisco says. “No harm done, I think. Barry obviously has no idea. He would have said something by now.”

“Well,” Caitlin say. “Maybe we should have the ‘time travel is a bad idea’ talk with them anyway. Goodness knows Barry’s not going to be the most convincing.”

Cisco jumps up and kisses her cheek. “I’ll let you take the lead on that. I already had to do the ‘don’t go to other Earths’ talk.”

 

Sometimes, Caitlin thinks as she opens the front door for Dawn and DJ, she’s sure that boundless energy is more of a West-Allen trait than a speedster one. They’re both practically bouncing on their toes on the front step, with identical beaming grins.

Caitlin shakes her head, even as she smiles and steps aside to let them in. “Cisco’s in the kitchen,” she tells them, unnecessarily with Cisco’s yelled “Tornado twins!” coming from that direction. “No speeding in the house!” she yells belatedly as DJ zips off to bring their bags upstairs to the guest room.

“Sorry Aunt Cait!” he yells back.

Caitlin rolls her eyes as she follows Dawn into the kitchen, where Cisco is keeping an eye on dinner.

“Dawnie!” he says, opening his arms for a hug. “Welcome to taco Tuesday.”

Dawn’s eyes light up and she perches on one of the bar stools. “Yum.”

Cisco smacks her hand away from the tortilla chips. “Nope. There’s energy bars in the cabinet if you really need it.”

Dawn groans.

“I think we should maybe revisit that formula,” Caitlin says, bumping hips with Cisco as she checks the meat. “Barry says they’ve gotten worse.”

Cisco throws up his hands. “No one’s ever happy!”

DJ trots, normal speed, into the kitchen and plops down next to his sister. “Who’s never happy?” he asks as he tries to sneak a chip.

Caitlin catches him this time, swatting his hand away. “You know where the energy bars are.”

DJ pouts. “But!”

“Aha!” Cisco crys. “You! You’re never happy!”

“Okay,” Caitlin says, pushing Cisco by the shoulders towards the living room. “Let’s go sit down. We need to pick a movie and Cisco and I want to talk to you guys about something.”

Both twins look like they want to ask questions, but they obediently follow Cisco and Caitlin into the living room.

“What is it?” Dawn asks.

Cisco pins her with a look. “Time travel,” he says flatly.

Dawn flushes red. “Uncle Cisco-”

“No, no, don’t ‘Uncle Cisco’ me,” he says. “I know what you did.”

“I just wanted to see,” Dawn says in a tone just short of a whine.

“Dawn,” Caitlin says sternly. “Hasn’t your dad talked to you guys about how dangerous time travel is?”

“Yes,” DJ supplies helpfully. “He told us about all the times he screwed things up by going back in time.”

“Exactly,” Caitlin says. “Even if you think you’re being careful, it’s really dangerous to do. Especially if you’re going back to interact with your past.”

“It wasn’t _my_ past,” Dawn mumbles, slouching in her seat.

Caitlin looks at her calmly. “And what if you had accidentally prevented your parents from getting married? What do you think would have happened?”

“Back to the Future,” Cisco says. “That’s what we’re watching tonight.”

Caitlin leans over to whisper, “I’m not sure if that’s the message we really want to go with.”

Cisco shrugs and turns so he’s talking right into her ear, “I think they’re old enough to get it.”

She leans back. “If this backfires, Tornado twin time travel talks are no longer my responsibility."

“Deal,” Cisco says, offering her a fist bump, then clapping his hands together. “So, who’s hungry?”

Later, much later, Cisco and Caitlin clean the kitchen in companionable silence while the twins doze in the living room, the movie credits still rolling.

As Cisco stacks the dishes in the sink, Caitlin leans against the counter to watch them, turning to smile at Cisco when he slides an arm around her waist.

“You okay?” he asks quietly.

Caitlin rests her head on his shoulder. “Yeah, just thinking.”

He kisses her forehead. “About what?”

“Them. Kids.” She takes a breath and holds it. “And us with kids.”

Cisco exhales slowly against her hair, then pulls away to look at her face. “We talked about that. I thought we agreed.”

Caitlin shrugs, and scoots back into his side. “Can we talk about it again?”

“Yeah,” Cisco says, and Caitlin can tell from his voice that he’s grinning. “Yeah, we can.”

**Author's Note:**

> Jessica Parker Kennedy, who played Dawn in the episode, is actually 33 but I didn't really want to go that far into the future, so the twins are 18 here. Please forgive the age bending.
> 
> Also, who the hell names their kids the same damn name? (Besides George Foreman, I guess.) I saw someone refer to Don as DJ (Don Joe?) somewhere, which would make it much easier to differentiate because like I said, same damn name. Hopefully Iris and Barry in the show have a little more sense.


End file.
